The Rise of Afro-Eccentricism

The catalyst behind one of Seattle’s most innovative hiphop projects
doesn’t want you to know who he is. You won’t find his name in the
credits of local outfit Shabazz Palaces’ two phenomenal CDs, nor will
you find a Shabazz Palaces MySpace page. You will search YouTube in
vain for any Shabazz Palaces clips. The group’s official website
contains no clues regarding the leader’s identity. While most rappers
bust their asses to get a sliver of shine, Shabazz Palaces’ mastermind
prefers anonymity.

With a Grammy earned 15 years ago and two classic albums recorded
with the Digable Planets trio, this smooth, smart rapper will have
trouble maintaining his mystique. But it’s admirable that he’s decided
to let his art stand or fall on its own (prodigious) merits when he
could easily cash in on his sterling legacy.

Let’s call this Central District MC/
producer Shabazz, because
it’s a cool-sounding handle and, according to the man behind it, “It
pulls from a lot of different cultures. Under that name, you can fuck
with a lot of styles of music and it will all fit nicely. It’s a
tribute to everything you can associate with that name—all the
obvious stuff, and also some stuff that only us in the group know
about.”

Right out of the gate, Shabazz Palaces’ two cryptically and
immaculately packaged CDs have garnered awestruck responses, including
a rousing recommendation from Philadelphia DJ/musician King Britt, who
worked with Digable in the ’90s. “Shabazz Palaces is definitely some of
[his] best work to date,” Britt asserts. “He has always been a master
of combining the languages of music, politics, and words into a
forward-thinking, boundary-leaping, groundbreaking sonic explosion.
Shabazz does just that. He always keeps me inspired, and he proves that
it’s quality over quantity. Malcolm [X] would be proud!”

Other listeners have chimed in with similarly breathless praise.
Commenting on Line Out, The Stranger‘s music blog, Wazhma
Samizay of Retail Therapy (a Capitol Hill shop that sells the EPs)
observed, “The music is visceral; the lyrics are raw and poetic.
Reminds you of a time when hiphop had meaning and talked about life and
love.” Also on Line Out, London’s “Bro O” raved, “It is vicious, way
ahead of the time and yet capturing the zeitgeist perfectly… It’s
sweet, but like a gunshot. No bullets, just stars.”

I had similar tingly feelings upon hearing the two seven-track discs
that surfaced in May like rare flowers. Hipped to Shabazz Palaces by
shoegaze-rock icon/
producer supreme Erik Blood, who mixed the
music at MRX Studios, I scooped up the releases and immersed myself in
their otherness.

On the black CD featuring the patch with a saber stitched onto
it—neither CD has a proper album title—elements rarely if
ever heard on hiphop releases predominate. “Hottabatch” sounds like the
most laid-back dancehall track ever. “Find Out” contains free-jazz
horns and some ill bass frequencies reminiscent of the WordSound label.
“Sparkles,” Shabazz’s most Digable track, is as tranquil and exotically
eerie as Jon Hassell. “Chuch” possesses a forbidding quasi-dubstep beat
and a loop of amazingly mesmerizing chants by north African women,
which Shabazz found on a DVD. In a voice more clenched and tense than
he revealed in Digable, Shabazz spits: “What’s up with this bullshit
that they be tryin’ to sell us/what the fuck do we look like/cornyass
niggas eating Jell-O in a crowd at a open mic/hail to the
north/intelligent relevant/lotta survivors want to hear something
elegant/you’ve reheated your beats and rhymes so many times, nigga,
that’s why I pine eloquent.”

The brown CD with the patch featuring minarets on it continues the
unconventional, stripped-down production techniques. “32 Leaves”
combines an eldritch, Goblinesque keyboard motif and hard gun-clap
beat. “My Mac Yawns” addresses “all my niggas home from corrections” to
some woozy electro. The slow, menacing creep of “4 Shadows” includes
deep, deadpan guest verses from his CD homie Silk, who appears on two
other cuts. On “Blastit,” Shabazz’s Zimbabwean friend Tendai (aka Boy
Wonder) plays an mbira (thumb piano), whose melody of delicate,
unspeakable beauty creates a sublime friction when contrasted with the
blunt, lackadaisical funk beats. The only other artists to whom you can
really compare Shabazz Palaces are Clipse (for the minimal production),
Zimbabwe Legit (emphatic delivery), and Company Flow (odd instrumental
flavors).

Shabazz Palaces have been germinating for about four years. Shabazz
has been mainly working with local producer/musician Bubba Jones and
Blood, with the music composed of samples and live playing in a 50-50
ratio. When asked what chain of events led to Shabazz Palaces’
formation, Shabazz laughs and pauses significantly.

“Well, I’m always inspired by what’s going on in life and stuff like
that,” he tentatively begins. “Just looking at stuff going on in the
current music industry and trying to figure out what I could do, where
I fit in. I’m not really a cerebral music-maker. I find myself in
musical situations, in moods, in feelings; the songs that come out of
that are what they are. I don’t give much thought to where I stand,
what my sound is, how I should try to describe it. That’s why there
aren’t any credits on the album, because I don’t think that stuff
matters. The only stuff that matters is the songs that end up happening
and the people that they end up touching.”

Shabazz Palaces have a very distinctive sound, so it would be
interesting to know how it developed. Shabazz wishes he could discuss
it, “But I think it’s a little out of my range to be able to tie down
where it came from, because it came from sooooo many influences
over sooooo long of a period of time. It’s nothing specific or
mapped out sonically. I tried to go with my feelings—being in
love with my life, with my kids, with my girl, with music and
sounds—just as much Soulja Boy as Miles Davis. Also, visual art
and film, good and bad times, losses and gains. All that kind of stuff
is in there.

“I guess it’s a reaction,” he continues. “But it’s also my attempt
at just making actions and being spontaneous, letting me and the
musicians I work with go from our instincts to the product without
filtering it through too much other shit.”

When pressed for examples, Shabazz says, “Take a film like City
of God—when they shoot the little kid in the foot. The way
that kid acted, it seemed so real. And I’m thinking, in that situation,
what did they convey or impart to that kid to get him to understand
what they needed him to do in that scene? As you start to think about
the layers of beauty and determination and spontaneity around that
single moment in that film, that’s inspirational enough for me to
create 10 or 15 little songs.”

Shabazz Palaces are currently working on their third release and
plan to play out when it’s completed in August or September. They’re
talking to a few labels (none local) and will have substantial
distribution and a publicist very soon. The mystique will fade, but
Shabazz is too levelheaded and industry-savvy to get ground down by the
machine. He’s going to do this on his terms or not at all, which is
great news for heads hungering for that Afro-eccentric sonic shock.
That being said, of all Shabazz Palaces’ many highlights, “Blastit,”
which is possibly the most beautiful track I’ve ever heard, rises
highest.

“People I know and friends, they seem to like that one a lot,”
Shabazz replies. “That’s how African stuff is. That’s my thing: Those
musicians very rarely are pursuing knowledge of the instrument to seek
any kind of material gain from it. I feel that that joy, that
selflessness, comes through in the music and makes it a happier
experience. It’s like giving, instead of creating something to
hopefully succeed in something.”